Alixandra Fazzina

Bio | Selected Stories | SELECTED PORTRAITS | Education & Exhibitions | Books & Prints

Standing in choppy shoulder deep water, Somali refugees look back anxiously from the sea as they try to locate friends and relatives left behind on Shimbiro Beach. Preparing to board one of three smuggler’s boats that will depart simultaneously for

Illuminated by torchlight, the dead body of a man is discovered in shallow water at Al-Baida Beach. Bloody marks around his face reveal that he had sustained a heavy beating prior to being thrown into the sea. One of a group of three hundred and six

BOSASSO, SOMALIA- JANUARY 2007
Watching over a group of refugees at one of his network's safe houses hidden deep in Bossaso town’s back streets, thirty-four year old “big fish” smuggler Omar lights a cigarette.Working at sea since he was a teenager,

KATLANG, PAKISTAN- MAY 2009
A crowd of newly arrived women and children fleeing conflict in Swat and Buner wait to show their temporary refugee cards at a distribution of rice and oil in an old cigarette factory near Mardan.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN- DECEMBER 2011
As the winter sun sinks, groups of teenage boys peer through the window of a traveller's inn as they look for a place to lay their heads for the evening. Arriving at the Company district bus station on the edge of

KANJU, PAKISTAN- SEPTEMBER 2009
With his Kalashnikov rifle strapped to his back, a guard from a privte militia performs Isha Nimaz in a garden overlooking the Swat Valley in Kanju Township at dusk. Over the last week, the local population roused by

HARGEISA, SOMALILAND REGION OF SOMALIA - FEBRUARY 2018
Partially shielding her face from a beam of light, Asmhan looks as her little sister Ayman makes her Asr prayers on the family’s single mat. Divorcing her husband in order to flee Yemen when wa

OBOCK, DJIBOUTI - MAY 2018
Under Arabic graffiti that reads “You cannot search for the beauty of love, it comes to you” armed fighter jets have been drawn on the opening of a canvas tent in Obock Camp. Sketched by Yemeni refugee Mohamed Al Abid, th

Bio

Based in London, United Kingdom

Available for commissions& assignments

alixandra@noorimages.com

Alixandra Fazzina (UK/Ireland) focuses with her photography on under-reported conflicts and the often forgotten humanitarian consequences of war. Alixandra has an uncanny ability to work in the most difficult social and geographical environments and is recognized for her compassionate and empathetic approach towards the human condition, always fully aware of the bigger picture. Her photographs cut to the core but are never imposing. Distinctly quiet, yet descriptive.

Studying Fine Art, she began her career as a war artist in Bosnia. Since then, she has worked independently as a photojournalist throughout Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Her reportages have been widely published in the British and international press and her photographs exhibited worldwide. Alixandra worked over a period of two years to chronicle the exodus of migrants and refugees from Somalia to the Arabian Peninsula. The resulting book “A Million Shillings: Escape from Somalia” was published by Trolley (2010) and re-launched in Arabic (2011). “A Million Shillings” was shortlisted for the Pictures of the Year International Best Photography Book of the Year Award. A selection of the works has been shortlisted for the Prix Pictet global award in photography and sustainability. In 2008 she was the recipient of the Vic Odden Award from the British Royal Photographic Society. For her work in Somalia, Alixandra was a finalist in the CARE Award for Humanitarian Reportage and the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography. In 2010 Alixandra was recognized as the winner of the highly prestigious UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award for her striking coverage of the devastating human consequences of war and because of her fearless and tireless dedication to humanitarian photography throughout her career. Having spent the past six years documenting the effects of conflict of displacement in Afghanistan and Pakistan, her long-term project The Flowers of Afghanistan, documents the stories of Afghan children seeking refuge in Europe. The photographic investigation looks into the causes and effects of the increasing number of Afghan minors making the hazardous overland journey to apply for asylum in EU member states.

In addition to her photography and writing, Alixandra has worked as researcher and producer for broadcast media and is regular contributor for radio.

Alixandra regularly teaches masterclasses and workshops around the world for organisations that have included World Press Photo, Reporters Without Borders and The Royal Photographic Society. She lectures in art, photography and media at photography and literature festivals and at on under and post graduate programmes at universities.

Selected Stories

YEMEN CONTRAFLOW

Following on from her work A Million Shillings, over the past year Alixandra Fazzina has been documenting new patterns of mixed migration to and from Yemen and the Horn of Africa, working closely with refugees and within the clandestine world of people smugglers.

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A million shillings

Across the Horn of Africa, war, abuse and poverty make millions miserable and drive thousands to attempt to flee. With land borders cut off or closed, and surrounded by conflict on all sides, one of the only means of escape is by sea.

"A Million Shillings" follows the journey of desperate emigrants, or tahrib, to their embarcation points with smugglers on the coast of Somalia, on a perilous voyage across the Gulf of Aden, and onward in the search for a better life. The cost is just $50, or one million Somali shillings.

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Pakistan at war

Pakistan’s war against terrorism on its own soil began in 2008 with the launch of the first military offensive against the Taliban on the Afghan border. Bearing witness to the first outbreak of hostilities in Bajaur, Alixandra Fazzina has spent the last 6 years in Pakistan documenting stories of the country at war.

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The flowers of afghanistan

A third of all the world’s refugees are from Afghanistan. The Russian Occupation, Warlordism, Taliban rule and the War on Terror have left an estimated five million people displaced beyond the country’s borders. Alixandra Fazzina portrays the individual stories of Afghan children on the move.

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Maternal mortality

Afghanistan is the worst place in the world for a woman to give birth. A woman dies there every twenty-seven minutes due to pregnancy related complications. The consequences of maternal mortality in Badakshan are felt throughout the province. Families have been devastated and thousands of children orphaned.

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